JAPAN DONATES NGN 750 MILLION FOR DISPLACED BOKO HARAM VICTIMS

The United Nations Children’s Fund has received a grant of $3.4m (about N750m) from the Government of Japan for Integrated Provision of Life-Saving Emergency Interventions for Vulnerable Populations in the North-East of Nigeria.

According to a statement by UNICEF, the grant will be used for interventions focused on Internally Displaced Persons and conflict-affected populations in the north eastern states of the country, where the Boko Haram menace has been prominent.

The specific areas of coverage, according to the agency, include water sanitation and hygiene, health, nutrition, child protection and education.

UNICEF recalls that the conflict in the crisis-torn states of Nigeria, especially in the states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, has caused large scale human suffering for the populations in the areas, affecting mostly children and women.

It noted that the conflict had triggered major population movements while the number of IDPs in the North-East had almost doubled in less than a year, from an estimated 647,000 in May 2014 to what the International Office of Migration reports put around 1.2 million person.

Reports say children make up about 56 per cent of those who have been internally displaced, with over half of them being five-year-old or younger.

The officer in charge of UNICEF in Nigeria, Mr. Samuel Momanyi, in statement, said, “This grant is timely and will further boost the work UNICEF is doing in the North-East. It will make a significant life-saving contribution to alleviate the suffering of the affected populations in the northeast especially children and women.”

Momanyi recalled that since 2000, the Government of Japan had been a major donor to UNICEF supporting interventions in child survival, prevention of infectious diseases in children and emergency interventions in Nigeria, through the UNICEF/Federal Government of Nigeria Programme of Cooperation.

The Chargés d’Affaires ad interim of the Embassy of Japan in Nigeria, Masaya Otsuka, said during the presentation ceremony in Abuja, “I earnestly hope that this grant aid will bring humanitarian assistance to the affected populations, especially children in the northeast of Nigeria.”